Lawmakers from both parties blessed Christie’s budget — which is 4 percent, or $1.3 billion, larger than what he signed last year — after removing a $2 million pilot program for school vouchers and securing slightly more funding for education, nursing homes and programs for disabled residents.

The Assembly passed the budget, 52-25, and the Senate approved it, 29-11, with none of the insults or profanity-laced tirades that have marked the budget battles during Christie’s first three years in office.

"I don’t recall cooperation like this during the entire decade of my service," Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick (R-Union) said. "It wasn’t very long ago when we were here overnight arguing on each and every issue that faced us in the budget. Let the nation know that New Jersey knows how to cooperate."

After hashing out a deal with Democrats during closed door meetings over the past week, the Christie administration secured the support of nearly two-thirds of lawmakers in each chamber. Democrats control both houses of the Legislature.

But the dealmaking rankled Sen. Barbara Buono, the Democratic candidate for governor, who said Christie’s blueprint takes funding away from women’s health services, universal pre-school and the Earned Income Tax Credit geared toward the working poor.

"People are asking us to stand with them and you know what we’re saying? ‘You’re on your own,’" Buono (D-Middlesex) said. "Protecting the pocketbooks of millionaires, this governor has forced the working poor and the middle class to pay more and get less in return."

Christie, who is seeking re-election this year, sought to defuse any blowback from Democrats from the start.

• He agreed to expand the state’s Medicaid program, saving New Jersey $227 million for the coming fiscal year by shifting more costs to the federal government under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

• He backed away from demanding a tax cut, as he did for most of 2012.

• He projected revenue growth of 4.9 percent — a more conservative estimate than the 8 percent he expected last year, which never came through and earned him months of criticism from Democrats and Wall Street analysts.

Christie is expected to sign the budget into law later this week, and it would take effect July 1.

Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), the budget committee chairman, said the spending plan was far from perfect but that Democrats were able to protect funding for "our most vulnerable residents" by sitting down with Christie to strike a deal.

"Nobody should be declaring victory today," Sarlo said, listing women’s health care, property tax relief, and school funding as areas that could use extra dollars. "This is not a time to celebrate."

But Republicans were celebrating anyway, heralding the budget talks as a national model and lavishing praise on Democrats for reaching out to Christie in an election year.

"That’s how government should work — not like 2008, when you (Democrats) spent some ridiculous money that we didn’t have," Sen. Kevin O’Toole (R-Essex) said.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester) said the real budgeting test will come next year.

Christie and lawmakers have agreed to make a record $1.7 billion payment to the broken pension fund this year, but that payment is only 43 percent of what is required under law.

The state will have a hard time finding the money in coming years as pension costs keep rising, Sweeney said.

"We are so strapped financially in this state," Sweeney said. "Almost all the new dollars coming into the state are going to go into the pensions. It’s $6 billion over the next several years."

On the other side of the debate, Sen. Michael Doherty (R-Warren) said the new budget already breaks the bank.

"Our neighbor to the west, Pennsylvania, a state with 4 million more people, this year are passing a budget for $28.3 billion," he said.

The budget includes a $303 million surplus, or rainy-day fund, and $540 million in corporate tax cuts that were authorized in previous years.

What it doesn’t include is more than $24 million for the special primary and general election Christie called to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Frank Lautenberg, who died earlier this month. Democrats opposed Christie’s decision to hold a separate election 20 days before the governor’s race. The primary is scheduled for Aug. 13, and the special general election Oct. 16.